Reviews

“Visitors to the House of Memory lucidly explores the intersection of museum experience, ethnic exclusion, and education. Its proposal for different models of inclusion in and through history education is very much needed in Germany and Europe today.”· Irit Dekel

“This is a very good ethnography of a central Berlin cultural institution. It deals with important questions of German national identity, guilt and responsibility, intergenerational transmission of memory, and museum pedagogy.”· Jackie Feldman, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Description

As one of the most visited museums in Germany’s capital city, the Jewish Museum Berlin is a key site for understanding not only German-Jewish history, but also German identity in an era of unprecedented ethnic and religious diversity. Visitors to the House of Memory is an intimate exploration of how young Berliners experience the Museum. How do modern students relate to the museum’s evocative architecture, its cultural-political context, and its narrative of Jewish history? By accompanying a range of high school history students before, during, and after their visits to the museum, this book offers an illuminating exploration of political education, affect, remembrance, and belonging.

Victoria Bishop Kendzia is a teaching fellow at Humboldt University, Berlin. Her publications include “‘Jewish’ Ethnic Options in Germany between Attribution and Choice: Auto-Ethnographical Reflections at the Jewish Museum Berlin” in the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures. She completed her doctorate at Humboldt’s Institute of European Ethnology

Contents

Chapter 1. Focus of the Research and Methodological Approach: The Research QuestionChapter 2. Memory, Political Education and the Positioning of the JMB: From Memory to Remembrance to Past PresencingChapter 3.Betroffenheit: The Museum Visit as an Embodied Memorial ExperienceChapter 4. The Visit as a Predominantly “Touristic” ActivityChapter 5. Between Engagement, Playful Appropriation, and ExclusionChapter 6. Concluding Reflections: From the Museum as a Field Site to a More Inclusive Culture of Memory